Teen robber says he didn't do it for the 'thrill'

He shot clerk with BB gun. Two 18-year-old women also sentenced in 'thrill' hold-ups.

Isaiah Barker was sentenced Friday in Lehigh County Court to nine to 20 years… (BEN MORRISON, THE MORNING…)

February 15, 2013|By Manuel Gamiz Jr. and Nicole Radzievich", Of The Morning Call

A 17-year-old Freemansburg boy told a Lehigh County judge Friday that he didn't take part in a series of robberies for the thrill of it.

It was to support his addiction to marijuana and cough syrup, Isaiah Barker first told Judge Maria L. Dantos. Later, he said it was to pay his bills and help support his son. Finally, he told the judge it was to help his friend out with the rent.

Dantos saw through the inconsistencies before sentencing Barker to nine to 20 years in state prison for committing two Allentown robberies, including one where he shot a clerk twice with a BB gun.

Barker committed the crimes with Luis Enrique Ortiz, 19, of Bethlehem, and Ashley Horning and Ashley Eskaff, both of whom are 18 and from Bethlehem. Ortiz was sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison. Horning and Eskaff were sentenced to at least 28 months in prison on conspiracy charges in the Allentown cases.

Horning and Eskaff were sentenced Friday in five Northampton County hold-ups.

"You were all in this together with one exception," Dantos told Barker. "You pulled the trigger."

Barker's family had pleaded with the judge for a lighter sentence, saying his personality changed in a matter of two months from innocent and playful to isolated and moody once he began spending more time with Ortiz and less with his family.

After the judge handed down the sentence, Barker's stepfather took his anger out on prosecutor Steve Van Natten, who wished the family "good luck" as he walked out of the courtroom.

"What the [expletive] did you just say?" the stepfather yelled before sheriff's deputies and other relatives held him back. The stepfather had just pleaded with Dantos that prison "is not going to make Isaiah a better person. It's going to make him worse."

Barker, donning a much shorter hairstyle than in past court appearances, told the judge he left his family's home in May and tried living with his girlfriend and son, but left there to stay with Ortiz because there "he had a little more freedom and could go out when he wanted."

He said neither of them worked, but had looked for jobs.

Barker said they smoked marijuana and began sipping cough syrup, an addiction that later grew to a few bottles a week. At some point, the group got the idea of committing robberies when Horning or Eskaff mentioned a former boyfriend had made money committing one.

Barker said he and Ortiz used BB guns during the robbery spree, which later became known as "thrill robberies" when one of the girls told police they committed the robberies "for the money and for the thrill."

In December, Barker pleaded guilty to two Allentown robberies — at the Patel Food Market, 1227 S. Airport Road, on July 14 and the 7-Eleven, 1302 Hanover Ave., on July 15.

In the Patel robbery, Barker shot the clerk twice with the pellet gun. He said the clerk pulled a gun and he fired back, but Van Natten said the clerk didn't have a weapon.

Besides the Allentown robberies, all four were also charged in robberies in Northampton County. Police said the teens took $5,600 worth of cash and cigarettes between July 14 and 17 from four Bethlehem convenience stores and a car wash in Palmer Township.

Horning and Eskaff were sentenced Friday to 14 to 28 months in prison in the Northampton County cases — sentences they can serve concurrently with the longer prison term in Lehigh County.

"I feel ashamed for what I did, but I'm trying to make the most out of the situation," Eskaff said.

Northampton County Judge Leonard Zito agreed but said they must take responsibility for their actions.

"These two made a left-hand turn somewhere, and it's time to get them back on track," he said.

Barker pleaded guilty to two Northampton County cases and awaits his sentencing there on March 27. Ortiz has yet to resolve his cases in Northampton County.

As she sentenced Barker, Dantos told him he wasn't looking for independence the day he left his parents' home. She said he went looking for trouble.

"You wanted to be a big man, you wanted to be a thug," she said. "You wanted to have the guns and take what you wanted."